Landscape Architect William H. Spell dies

JOHN D. CLARKE TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Published: April 20, 2009

Jewelers say the setting is as important as the stone.

William H. Spell's settings were measured in acres. The prominent landscape architect's portfolio of projects reads like a tourism brochure: St. John's Episcopal Church, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Science Museum of Virginia, Country Club of Virginia, Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, Virginia War Memorial, a handful of universities and much of the parkland in Richmond's East End.

The list is rich in terms like revitalization, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse. Mr. Spell created designs for streetscapes in Jackson Ward and along Broad Street, including the façades of Virginia Commonwealth University's new buildings, using landscaping, lighting and paving materials to create a welcoming feel.

He designed the gardens and kugel fountain plaza for the Science Museum, home of the world's largest water-supported granite models of the Earth and the moon. The pocket park south of the main Richmond Public Library also is one of his works.

Mr. Spell died Friday. A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 6000 Grove Ave.

Mr. Spell, a Georgia native and an honors graduate of the University of Georgia, moved to Richmond in 1978 after serving as an officer in the Navy. He joined the landscape architecture firm Higgins and Associates Inc. He was a vice president there when Higgins and Associates worked with the city and the J. Fulmer Bright Foundation to improve Chimborazo, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Libby Hill and Great Shiplock parks in Richmond's East End.

"There's a lot of people with good pioneering spirit up there. There are some incredible opportunities for the area," Mr. Spell said in a 1989 Richmond Times-Dispatch interview. The goal, he said, was to make each park "feel safe, make it feel like the place to be."

Mr. Spell left Higgins and Associates in 1997 to start his own firm.

He shared his expertise in workshops of the annual Gillette Forum at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and weekend for-credit courses through the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service and the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs.

His latest projects involved private homes and planned communities.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Cary Spell of Richmond; three daughters, Ashley Wilbrooks Spell of Chicago and Elizabeth Wilbrooks Spell and Molly Randolph Spell, both of Richmond; his parents, William and Helen Spell of Mechanicsville; a sister, Susie Abrahamson of Kansas; and two grandchildren.